5 Minute Homemade Mac and Cheese

Last week was raining and I knew just what I wanted to whip up for dinner….a quick and easy homemade mac and cheese.

Who needs a box mix when you can have homemade mac in 5 minutes?! I will say, that I had cooked pasta in my fridge from a previous dinner, so make sure you cook some extra pasta to have ready for this recipe.

This is too easy to not try for yourself, give it a go and let me know if you love it as much as we do!!

Can you even handle all of the ingredients you need? I don’t know if I can.

Pour in your cheese pleeeease.

Add your milk. I used whole milk here.

Every last drop!

Add some salt.

….and freshly ground black pepper.

Grab a spoon and stir it all together.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes. Stir and microwave for an additional 2 minutes.

Stir until creamy dreamy smooth.

Oh yah!!

Dig in!

5 Minute Homemade Mac and Cheese

1/2 pound cooked pasta of choice (we used small shells)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup whole milk

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Place pasta, cheese, milk, salt and pepper into a microwave safe bowl. Stir to mix. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and microwave for 3 minutes. Stir and microwave for an additional 2 minutes. Stir until creamy and smooth. Serve immediately.

Comments

Looks yum! Mac and cheese isn’t a traditional favorite here in Australia like it is in the US but I really want to try it. Do you serve this as a side dish or the main dish for dinner? Can you serve vegetables with it? (not mixed in, just on the side) I’m looking forward to trying your recipe!

It can be done as either, but serving it as a main course with some steamed broccoli or cauliflower (or both!) would be a great way to balance a meal, plus the veggies would accent the cheese perfectly! 🙂

Hi, I realize that you wrote your question nearly four years ago and it may have been answered. However, here in America Macaroni And Cheese is almost always served as a side dish. Though sometimes people do just eat it by itself, especially when their budget is low. And yes, by all means, do serve with vegetables, also on the side. Or you can experiment and even add vegetables to the Macaroni and Cheese. It’s up to you. I am ready to try this recipe for “Thanksgiving” which is exclusively an “American Holiday. I think I am going to do a trial run so that I can tweak it just in case I can improve on this recipe. So Bon Apetit.

hello, by the way thanksgiving is not exclusive to america….. canada has thanksgiving too. and also another good thing to add to mac and cheese is 1-2 cans of tuna (depending on how much mac and cheese), or you can also add ground beef to it (one good way is to prepare the meat like you making tacos with taco sauce mix but instead you stick into your mac and cheese) YUM !

I love that you made this in the microwave. I love my microwave and use it rather than the stovetop for melting everything from cheese to butter to chocolate chips. Big time saver for me and this is a great idea, Jenny!

My mother used to make the best macaroni cheese with velvet, milk and a white sauce. I haven’t been able to replicate it. Now that I’ve read today’s post, I realize it’s because I hadn’t been using whole milk. It does make a difference, doesn’t it!

Wow, this looks so much easier than the way my grandmother taught me. I have always used, cheddar cheese, farfalle pasta, and no fat powdered milk. Cooking the pasta on stovetop takes ~20 minutes (10 for boiling, 10 for cooking). And another minute or so to melt the cheese on stovetop (adding a tablespoon of milk for one ‘handful’ of cheddar – [I have small hands ;)]). I mix it together (after draining the farfalle, obviously), and then sprinkle with some black pepper.

Yummy, but takes a heck of a lot longer. 🙁
My idolatry of mac n cheese will lead me to trying your microwave method!

I’m only irritated because I always have these ingredients on hand yet, despite their simplicity, never put them together. Goodbye, Kraft and super-long, laborious processes of making mac and cheese. Hello, new, easy favorite!

Everyone is raving but has anyone (aside from Jeri above me) tried it? It looked amazing and unreal to me also, but like Jeri, my cheese just clumped and was not at all nice and creamy like Jenny’s. What did I do wrong….and it is even possible to do this recipe wrong!!?? It still tasted good of course–I mean, how can’t it? Its cheese!

After reading these comments, I added half a tablespoon of flour to freshly-shredded cheese and tossed it together before combining with the rest of these ingredients. It then melted nice and smooth like in the photos above. Perhaps the original poster didn’t need to add flour because she used bag cheese, which I believe already has something in it to keep it from clumping?

My 16 year old son loves mac and cheese and I taught him how to do this several years ago because he is constantly hungry. I love that he will take left overs and create something new. Yours looks amazing!

[…] 5 Minute Homemade Mac and Cheese | Picky Palate Last week was raining and I knew just what I wanted to whip up for dinner….a quick and easy homemade mac and cheese. Who needs a box mix when you can have homemade mac in 5 minutes?! I will say, that I had cooked pasta in my fridge from a previous dinner, so make sure you cook some extra pasta to have ready for this recipe. […]

Thanks for the recipe! I tried it out and I am in love! I made it with cheese I had on hand some cheddar, feta and a little mozzarella. I halved the recipe and made it with skim milk it was delicious and wonderful! Thank you so much for this wonderful idea!

Just made this for lunch, love it! My girls are pretty picky, and wont eat homemade Mac and cheese…but they love this! I cant believe how easy it is either. I just heated up the cheese and milk in the saucepan I used to boil the noodles and it worked great. Thanks 🙂

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Welcome to Picky Palate, my online kitchen! You'll usually find me with a cookie in one hand and a salad in the other. It's all about the balance :) The recipes you'll see are my creations. The Picky Palate Cookbook is now available. Enjoy!